The Most Fun I Ever Had With My Clothes On: A March from Private to Colonel by Tom Davis

Old Mountain Press$20, paperbackISBN: 978-1-931575-83-6June, 2014MemoirAvailable from the publisher

Excerpt We would RON (Rest Over Night) in the tree squares; I would set up a poncho, blow up my air mattress, and hang my body mosquito net under the poncho and over the air mattress. Then I would dig a body trench about a foot deep. Of course, the trench filled with water; but should we receive incoming, I could roll over into it, finding some protection. As daylight gave way to twilight, the ants left the scene to be replaced by mosquitoes. I have never seen anything like it. I could lie on my air mattress and watch the outside of my mosquito net turn darker as the infuriating little insects blocked out the twilight. I would tap the net with my finger and a hole of light would appear, then close up again as the mosquitoes returned.

In his memoir the author relates his experiences during the thirty-one years spent in the US Army, rising through the ranks from private to full colonel. Twenty of those years he served with US Army Special Forces (Green Berets). This book chronicles his time in three combat zones: Vietnam, Bosnia, and Iraq/Turkey. Included are his experiences commanding Special Forces Operational A Detachments which specialized in Underwater Operations, High Altitude Low Opening Parachuting, Mountaineering, and Small Atomic Demolitions Munitions as well as two Special Forces Battalions and a Joint Special Operations Task Force. Each chapter covers his duties and responsibilities at the Army Installation where he served. Some times funny. Some times sad. Always interesting.

Thomas (Tom) Hoyt Davis, III (AKA The Squid), holds a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Georgia and a master’s degree from the University of Southern California. Tom entered the Army as a private and retired as a full colonel. He spent twenty of his more than thirty years in the Army serving with Special Forces (Green Berets) on four continents and in ten foreign countries. He has worn a Green Beret at every rank from 2LT to Colonel and commanded at every level from Special Forces A Teams to a Joint Special Operations Task Force. The various A Teams he commanded specialized in Mountaineering, Underwater Operations, High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) parachute techniques, and Small Atomic Demolitions Munitions (SADM). In addition to the Army’s Command and General Staff College and Army War College, he has attended Airborne, Ranger, Special Forces, Underwater Operations (UWO), Danish Combat Swimmer, Special Forces Surface Swimmer Infiltration Technique Course, High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) parachute school, Small Atomic Demolitions Munitions (SADM) and others.

His short stories, articles, and poetry have been published in Poets Forum, The Carolina Runner, Triathlon Today, ByLine, Georgia Athlete, The Saturday Extra (magazine section of the Fayetteville Observer), A Loving Voice Vol. I and II, and Special Warfare (a professional military journal published by the Special Warfare Center). Many of his short stories have received honors in writing contests sponsored by ByLine magazine. Other books by Tom include The Life and Times of Rip Jackson, The Patrol Order, and The R-complex.